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Robert Kagan, the New York Times bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power and one of the country´s most influential strategic thinkers, reaffirms the importance of United States´s global leadership in this timely and important book. Upon its initial publication, The World America Made became one of the most talked about political books of the year, influencing Barack Obama´s 2012 State of the Union address and shaping the thought of both the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns. In these incisive and engaging pages, Kagan responds to those who anticipate-or even long for-a post-American world order by showing what a decline in America´s influence would truly mean for the United States and the rest of the world, as the vital institutions, economies, and ideals currently supported by American power wane or disappear. As Kagan notes, it has happened before: one need only to consider the consequences of the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. This book is a powerful warning that America need not and dare not decline by committing preemptive superpower suicide.

What would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the country´s most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane. Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit ´´preemptive superpower suicide,´´ the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putin´s Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. We´ve seen this before-in the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.